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The information below is based upon a compilation of bear information provided by government agencies and unconfirmed sightings reported by the public over the last week. It is not intended to be used as a real-time, complete record of where bears are in the valley.
BEAR ACTIVITY SUMMARY
(Banff National Park East Gate to Bow Valley Provincial Park) For the period: May 14 to May 21, 2021
Bears continue to be seen along trails, roads and in residential neighbourhoods throughout the Bow Valley! There have also been several bear sightings at the Canmore Nordic Centre and other parts of K-Country, including mother bears with young cubs on trails and roadside.
As such, always be mentally prepared and expect that you will encounter a bear while out in bear country. That way if it does happen, you won’t be surprised and you will handle the encounter properly!
Elk calving season has started and calves have already been spotted. There have also been reports of bears searching for elk calves along popular walking trails near town. Mother elk can become very defensive and will aggressively protect their calves by kicking or charging if they feel threatened. The best way to keep them at ease is to stay at least 30m away - which is three school bus lengths.
VIEW CURRENT WARNINGS AND CLOSURES
Black bear seen in a residential area on the south side of Canmore eating grass roadside. (Photo taken on Tuesday morning)
SOME THINGS TO ‘BEAR’ IN MIND
The green grass and dandelions along the highways are drawing all kinds of wildlife to the roadside as this is their springtime food. Remember to obey speed limits and slow down when passing wildlife roadside. Do not stop to view wildlife and always stay in your vehicle!
Some things are out of our control, but with the long weekend coming up, properly securing your food and garbage is something you can control!
Never feed any wildlife and never leave food unattended!
If you see garbage on the ground, help out by picking it up and putting it in a bin
If the bin is full, take the garbage home with you
Never leave food or garbage on the ground!
We can’t prevent bears from walking through our picnic areas, campsites and backyards, but we can certainly can do our best not to give them a food reward or a reason to linger! Keep them moving along by ensuring your campsites and yards are free of attractants such as food, garbage, pet food, greasy bbq’s and bird feeders.
A reminder for trail runners and mountain bikers who move quickly and often quietly along the trails. Make lots of noise (yell, shout) to let wildlife know you are coming down the trail and slow down to avoid surprise encounters with wildlife, especially around blind corners, at the tops of hills, or in areas with thick vegetation and poor sight lines. It is also a good idea to check behind you to make sure you are not being followed by wildlife.
Kananaskis Conservation Pass: Starting June 1st, all vehicles stopping in Kananaskis Country and provincial sites in the Bow Valley Corridor will need to purchase a Kananaskis Conservation Pass.
Elk Calving Season (May-June): People need to be extra vigilant of mother elk that will be hiding their calves in dense vegetation near parks, fields and trails. Mother elk can become very defensive and will aggressively protect their calves by kicking and charging at you if they feel threatened. The presence of newborn calves can also attract predators such as bears, cougars, wolves and coyotes into town who are looking for an easy meal. This increases the chance that people visiting these areas may encounter predators who are either feeding on or searching for calves. Carry bear spray, keep your pets on a leash and leave at least 30 metres of space between yourself and all elk.
BEARS IN THE NEWS
Bear 152 who was hit by a vehicle last week appears to be doing ok.
WildSmart was on Global TV this week to talk about being bear aware with the long weekend coming up.
A grizzly bear in the Nordegg area was killed after breaking into a wooden shed containing garbage.
An Alaska man survived a grizzly bear attack while he was out alone surveying land.
A woman was bluff charged by a grizzly bear down in Yellowstone National Park after getting much too close.
Food for Thought?
What are the Bears eating today? by Derek Ryder, Volunteer Wildlife Ambassador & IGA Interpretive Guide
By now most bears have emerged from their dens and through the month of May, they’ll leave the higher alpine environments where they den, and move down to the snow free valley bottoms, so bear sightings and encounters will increase through the month. Along the way down from the alpine, if they can find a carcass of something killed over the winter by an avalanche, they’ll be very happy. However, there are no guarantees for that to happen, so most bears will rely on their veggie diets. One plant they will go after that does have berries at this time of year is kinnikinnik.
Evergreen, ground-covering mats of kinnikinnik are everywhere around here, and it’s a plant worth learning to recognize. While they prefer the sunny montane slopes, I’ve seen the plant in dark drier areas all the way up to almost the high alpine. The dark green oval leaves virtually cover the entire plant, hiding the woody stems underneath. Sometimes, the leaves will change colour a bit over the winter, ending up almost purple, but they seem to go back to green fairly quickly in the spring.
The plant flowers early, often in early April, and the flowers stay on until late May. The flowers themselves are quite small and look like small bells, whitish with pink edges. These flowers eventually turn into small red berries that earn the plant the more common name of bearberry. Those berries will eventually turn a dark blue or black.
While the berries themselves are very popular with birds and other animals, how appealing they are to bears depends on whom you talk to. Ben Gadd notes that bears seem to like the roots of the plants more than the berries. Many Indigenous people believe that bears only eat the berries when they’re unwell. The berries will stay on the plant over the winter, and some sources claim that the sugar (and the flavour) of the berries improves after having been frozen all winter. Perhaps this is why they seem more common in early season bear scat, where the berries seem to come out whole and any colour from red to black, suggesting they’re not digested too well. Kinnikinnik is possibly the most important plant food source straight out of denning.
The berries are edible for humans, but are dry, mealy and mostly tasteless, and eating too many results in constipation. Pound them with Saskatoon berries and animal fat and you have the original pemmican. Indigenous people often cooked them mixed with grease or eggs; tea can be made from the berries and leaves, but too much tea results in stomach and liver problems. Strong tea was used to induce labour. The name kinnikinnik is Algonquin for “smoking mixture” as the dried leaves were used to cut tobacco or smoked on their own. They’re also high in tannin, and were used to tan hides. Various Indigenous peoples used bearberry to treat kidney diseases, turned the leaves into a salve for skin diseases or for sore gums.
So as we go through May, see if you can find some kinnikinnik, including the flowers and berries. And if you see a pile of scat, grab a stick and poke around in it to see if you can find some red, blue or black kinnikinnik berries. The photo is of fresh bear scat, and it was taken on February 6, 2015, a year when spring came for a while (winter did come back) and a few bears got up early for a bit.
AND NOW SOME PAWS-ITIVE NEWS
Our Volunteer Wildlife Ambassadors have started heading back out onto trails and trailheads to talk to people about responsible trail use and staying safe while recreating in bear country. Keep an eye out for them and be sure to say hi!
Volunteer Wildlife Ambassadors Judy and Susan in action!
Please remember BEARS CAN BE ENCOUNTERED ANYWHERE, ANYTIME!
Report any sightings of a bear, cougar, wolf or any aggressive wildlife in Kananaskis Country or the Bow Valley to Kananaskis Emergency Services at 403.591.7755